alison

There have been rumours in the last month that Obraztsova is going to join the Bolshoi, where she has been dancing more.

Who could blame her? Best of luck to both of them, wherever they're going.

Well, I'm not using an iPad, but I can't see anything.

Isn't this all getting a bit much? Another phrase involving horses springs to my mind ...

I'm planning on going as much as possible, too. I just wish my local cinema would play ball. It's daft being just down the road from one which used to show (some of) them and having to make a 10-mile trek.

This came through from Sadlers Wells

 

"Due to issues with visas, some of the advertised artists will now not be appearing. The full cast will include Ivan Putrov, Sergei Polunin, Igor Kolb, Daniel Proietto, Elena Glurdjidze and Aaron Sillis.

 

The programme will be Folkine's Le Spectre de la Rose, a solo from Goleizosky's Narcisse, a new work called Ithaca with set design by Turner Prize nominated artist Gary Hume, Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits and Russell Maliphant's AfterLight (Part One). "

Was that an email? I still haven't received anything.

Unfortunately, though, I have received one from the ROH saying that Simon Keenlyside is out of all his scheduled performances of Le Nozze di Figaro due to illness . Can't remember whether that was my only reason for going.

So, more and more is being written (and recorded) on this subject, more hyperbole, more and more quotes, often taken out of context, more and more speculation, assumptions and the like, whether well-founded or not. I don't imagine any of this can be helping the situation one bit. I'm sure we shall have a better idea once the dust has settled a bit, but that may not be immediately. In the meantime, the dancers have got performances to rehearse for, and life has to go on, more or less as normal ...

I'm really annoyed by the way journalists are reporting short message from twitter and making conclusions...

So am I (and if I find another of Andy Murray's tweets quoted in the Australian Open coverage, I think I shall scream. It's lazy journalism, especially when the "quotee" is available for interview. But I digress ...). Basically, nobody really seems to know anything, so they're just grabbing at anything that will make a story, it seems to me. Loads of facts stitched together, irrespective of whether they make anything even vaguely watertight.

BTW, I had another read of the Evening Standard's article on the tube this evening, and got the impression that extra had been added. Whether there's any truth in that, again, is anybody's guess.

And Louise Levene in her piece makes quite a thing about all his dates being sold out. That, as far as I can recall from the winter booking programme (the rest not being publicly on sale yet), is 2 Romeo and Juliets and three The Dreams. I haven't found any R&Js that *aren't* sold out, irrespective of who's dancing them, and previous experience leads me to suspect that the presence of a certain Mr. Acosta in the other half of the double bill on all 3 occasions is probably a greater contributing factor to sales than Polunin's.

I've been asking myself the same question.

As I'm sure quite a few of us have. In a "normal" business, key staff would likely be on 3 months' notice - I can't imagine it would be any less for a ballet company, in view of the scheduling problems a shorter term would cause. After all, the dancers who went to Japan back in the late 90s I think gave 3 months' notice - although I don't think Kumakawa did.

Well, this evening has really gone downhill fast since I got in this evening! This is a real shock. In the half hour that it's taken me actually to get into and read this thread, I've been wondering, "but where would he go? Surely not the Mikhailovsky!" I guess we'll have to wait and see what he's going to do, but apart from anything else it's really going to throw the RB casting into chaos - he's cast in so much, including The Dream next week. Presumably the Sadler's Wells thing this weekend will be going ahead as announced.

Congratulations to all the winners. I was particularly glad to see Gary Avis' many years of service being recognised. I mean, we all know that he's a National Treasure , but the recognition is still nice.

Yes, I know, they're very nice, aren't they? And there is more up there from Schaufuss' own company, too.

And possibly as a result of our departure from the formal Links scene????

Alltopics.com Offers Hottest News on Ballet

Yahoo! News

Pah! No competition. No sense of priorities. No filtering. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, did I really need to know, for example, that "Pregnant Jennifer Garner Takes Violet to Ballet and Karate" (I can see this girl taking after her mother, 20 years down the road)? Boy, if Ballet.co's links people had to filter out that sort of dross on a daily basis, they go up even further in my estimation.

Edit because I forgot what I originally came to say, which was, Ian, you're spoiling us. But thank you. It's making the withdrawal symptoms a little easier to manage

end of an era - thanks to all who brought us the links, I know I'm not the only one who appreciates all the hard work that went into them

Definitely not. And to everyone who's contributed to them over the years, many thanks for all the hard work you put in - such dedication, year after year.

I suppose I shall have to start weekly trips to the library to catch up, at least on the "broadsheets", now, but I shall miss all the other quirky links.

I'm trying to retrieve the various details of ballets being shown in the cinema for this season, not totally successfully. If anyone can contribute links, please do.

The Royal Ballet's performances, being few in number, are fairly easy to remember: 22nd March for Romeo & Juliet, and 16th May for La Fille Mal Gardée. Details here http://cinema.roh.org.uk/ (and perhaps one day the site will get its postcode search accurate: apparently, Piccadilly Circus is under 4 miles from where I live, Leicester Square nearly 8, and Covent Garden over 17 miles . For those not overly familiar with London geography, all 3 are well within a mile of each other). Also, according to the Period 3 brochure, the 16th July "Titian" performance will be shown on big screens across the UK.

The cinema chains listed for the ROH broadcasts are Apollo, Empire, Cineworld, Vue, Odeon, Showcase and Picturehouse. The Odeon's cultural offerings are here: http://www.odeon.co....plus_09_07_2010

As for the Bolshoi, their performances are rather more numerous (Le Corsaire, The Bright Stream and Raymonda). The dates can be found here, among others: http://www.pictureho...Moscow_2011_12/

I'll have to come back and do the proper "bests" and what have you another time when I've had time to think about it, but there were some other things I wanted to comment on:

Worrying situations re artistic directors and boards in the USA (and possibly elsewhere), at Miami City Ballet and Ballet San Jose - and I suspect there may be more to come.

Biggest disappointments (barring Ballet.co closing):

1. Having to miss Edward Watson's Des Grieux due to injury (and then assuming that I'd at least be able to catch him in the autumn, only to find that he wasn't one of those cast).

2. (Because more expected:) Ashton's Romeo & Juliet at the Coliseum over the summer. A cut-down production with a couple of big star names just doesn't remotely start to do it justice. I have since been reading a lot of back-copies of dance magazines which discussed it when it was in the live repertoire, and they've only served to reinforce my feelings on the matter.

Imbalance in casting at the Royal Ballet (and possibly elsewhere). I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but last year I actually found myself deliberately staying away from a number of performances (and not only the ubiquitous Cinderellas) because I felt as though I'd had an overdose of the dancer(s) in question. There's surely something wrong when you start thinking "Oh no, not X again!" And then, of course, there are other dancers where you'd welcome the opportunity to be able to overdose on them ...

That's good to know

I wonder who will actually follow in Nijinsky's footsteps in Spectre?

I'm hoping Putrov: he was good in it at the ROH.

Edit: The Sadler's website doesn't indicate casting for it.

Just a thought: those who wanted to could perhaps investigate the "signature" option (see e.g. JMcN's posts) and put their old name down below ...

Nothing that those in charge of pricing do would surprise me - except if they were, for instance, to reinstate the number of tickets at low price (the blue ones?) which there were in the amphi until a few seasons ago. Thanks for the warning: I'll book (or not) accordingly.

Thanks for spotting that, Linda - I'd seen that the place was open for business, but not that there were dance events involved.

I hope they get around to announcing the rest of the casting for Birthday Offering in the reasonable future - as, I seem to remember, they used to do. I see Rojo still hasn't got her wished-for Natalia Petrovna, but then it does rather seem that management is pursuing a policy of casting principals in only one major part in a triple bill.

So, we're almost two weeks into the New Year already. But what about the past year? What did you go and see? In the absence of the usual Ballet.co annual poll, it would be interesting to hear what you rated, what you hated, and anything else relating to ballet and dance in 2011. Trying to recall the old poll categories, they included best dancer, best partnership, most promising dancer; best home company, best visiting company; best new production (including new choreography), best revival; developments you find positive, or worrying; favourite and worst moments - but feel free to select as many of those as you like and/or make up your own.

Over to you ...

Since 2004, in fact!

I am willing to help or contribute should volunteers be needed.

Ditto, insofar as circumstances permit.

In his message of December 9th, Bruce said to "reply (to him) if you have to get an important message to another forum member and don't have direct contact". This was after the old Doing Dance forum had to close down suddenly.

Yes, but it was also before he set up this forum, so I suspect that may no longer apply. To confuse things further, I notice that some users have taken the opportunity to change their username, which, while understandable, doesn't necessarily help the situation.